Obamacare Tech Firms: Website 'Worked as Designed'

24 Oct 2013

Contractors who were responsible for building healthcare.gov and the technology to handle enrollment in the federal Obamacare exchanges told the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday that they had not been aware of any problems that should have prevented the ill-fated launch of the Obamacare website Oct. 1.

Cherly Campbell, Senior Vice President of CGI Federal, the U.S. subsidiary of the Canadian firm contracted to build healthcare.gov, told Congress that the website had “worked as designed.” Other contractors likewise testified that their portions of the project had been “ready to go.” None advised the administration to delay.

Members of the committee were flummoxed as they asked contractors to explain earlier testimony, just a few weeks earlier, that the Obamacare website would function well. The contractors testified under oath that they had been unaware of problems and that they had carried out their responsibility to report testing errors.

The contractors pushed responsibility back to the Obama administration, especially the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which the contractors said had final say in whether the program launched or not. Democrats on the committee accused Republicans of wanting Obamacare to fail regardless of the website.

Note: the text and headline have been changed to reflect the fact that Campbell said “worked as designed,” not “performed as designed.”